Barry Lewis: Put your lame excuses aside and cast that vote

It's been more than 40 years and I can still see the numbers, scrawled on my Uncle Michael's bedroom wall, of how many American soldiers had died in the Vietnam War.

It's been more than 40 years and I can still see the numbers, scrawled on my Uncle Michael's bedroom wall, of how many American soldiers had died in the Vietnam War.

No issue galvanized this nation more as I neared my teens. Nothing painted for me a more black-and white picture of what the war had really cost this country than those numbers, each one representing someone's father. Son. Brother. Friend.

Uncle Michael had a high draft number. We both knew he was lucky. The numbers were his tribute to the soldiers. A reminder and a protest.

The numbers on the wall sparked my interest in the war, which began an early period of activism and a lasting curiosity with politics.

In 1972, after more than 56,200 American soldiers had lost their lives in Vietnam, my uncle voted in his first presidential election. His protest went from writing on a wall to casting a ballot. This is how you can really make a difference.

I was jealous. Why did I have to wait another eight years?

Turns out he was among the dozen or so who voted for Democrat George McGovern that year.

He also was among the 55.2 percent of the voting-age population who voted in the presidential election of 1972. While it remains the third-greatest percentage of voter turnout in a presidential election over the last 36 years, it was in fact the continuation of a downward slide in voter turnout since 1960, when 62.8 percent of Americans cast their ballots for either John F. Kennedy or Richard Nixon.

A few months back, I reminded my uncle of the wall in his Brooklyn bedroom. We got to talking politics and then he tossed into the conversation that the '72 election was his last. He hadn't voted since then.

Huh?

Had the McGovern trashing taken that much out of him?

He said he just never saw a reason to vote after that. Didn't think it would matter. Hadn't been paying much attention to the candidates or the issues.

Huh?

But the wall. The numbers. Your protest. Your vote can make a difference.

He shrugged.

We had an editor at this paper who said he didn't vote because he wanted to remain impartial. Knew which candidate he wanted to see win. But he said he'd be compromising his journalistic integrity by voting.

Really? How about his integrity as an American?

How could you not vote?

How can anyone not vote?

I know. It's a Tuesday. Workday. Polls are only open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. You only had four years to figure out how you can take a half-hour out of your day to vote. Because you might miss a "Real Housewives" episode.

Oh, that's right, it doesn't matter because your candidate is going to win or lose anyway. And it doesn't really matter because those politicians are all the same. Any other excuses?